For many years, automobiles, trucks and similar vehicles have been equipped with arm rests mounted on the interior face of the inner panel of the door or other side wall thereof. While the configuration of these arm rests can vary in generally minor respects from one model of vehicle to another, they typically take the form of a shaped block projecting from the interior face of the door or other side panel and anchored by screws or bolts to a part of the frame of the vehicle. When viewed from the top or in plan, they are usually of shallow or laterally elongated U-shape, i.e. with rounded inner corners and a length parallel to the vehicle length greater than their width or interior projection. The top surface of the rest is essentially flat to give support for the elbow or forearm of an occupant sitting in proximity to the side panel. A central portion of the rest adjacent to the side panel may be recessed, or cut away, to form a vertical opening therein to define a hand-well functioning as a hand-grip to enable the occupant to conveniently grasp the same to facilitate opening and closing of the door.
Embodiments of arm rests more or less representative of the usual configurations in the art are shown in U.S. Pat Nos. 2,703,602 and 2,721,605. The latter is specifically concerned with a shaped flexible plastic sheath which fits over a conventional arm rest merely as a protective cover therefor while the former suggests a cover for the rest incorporating a special feature in which a molded rigid plastic outer cover is cut away in a central region thereof which is spaced inwardly of the hand well of the arm rest to form an oval opening through which a portion of an underlying sponge rubber pad and a superposed fabric layer are caused to protrude bulgingly above the top surface of the cover to confer a more rounded and pleasing contour to the top surface. The bulging protrusion of the pad and fabric layer can offer only minimum cushioning action and the patented construction is described as furnishing only comfort that is "comparable . . . to the original arm rest of the automobile."
As may be inferred from the -605 patent, a drawback present in standard automotive arm rests is the absence of genuinely comfortable support for the elbow or forearm of an occupant, particularly during long trips when the elbow or arm is maintained in contact with the rest substantially continuously for several hours or longer. Due to its position and function, the arm rest at least on the driver side tends to receive a substantial amount of wear aggravated by the absorption of perspiration and skin oils from the occupant so that the arm rest is often the first part to show visible evidence of abrasion and cracking. In order to reduce this "wear and tear" and avoid premature deterioration, auto manufacturers have elected to emphasize durability above comfort in the construction of the rest, covering a solid core having the necessary mechanical strength and rigidity with a layer of a durable thick plastic or, in upscale models, leather with a minimum of intervening padding. The resulting units possess a very firm substantially unyielding surface and while they no doubt have high resistance to deterioration, this is achieved at a considerable price in comfortable support for the occupant's arm.
Some efforts have been made in the art to improve the comfort of arm rests. An early proposal is found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,247,547 which discloses a portable pad for the then wooden arms of railway passenger car benches wherein a flexible pad, e.g. of felt, is enclosed within an outer covering of leather or the like and carries pivotally on its underside a spaced pair of downwardly opening C-shaped spring clamps for resiliently and removeably engaging the arm of the bench. Modification of this arrangement for an automotive arm rest would be awkward at best since the hand well of the rest is of limited area and does not always pass entirely through the arm rest, making satisfactory engagement of the spring clamps to the rest difficult to impossible.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,633,186, an "add-on" detachable shield for the standard arm rest is shown consisting of a molded hollow metal or plastic frame adapted to be slipped over the standard rest and held in place by a downwardly projecting tongue engaging the hand-well of the rest, the exposed top and side faces of the shield being optionally encased by a shallow cushioning pad overlaid by a fabric cover glued or otherwise secured along its margins to the inner surface of the shield. The optional pad when present is held in fixed position and cannot be adjusted to suit the idiosyncratic preferences of different occupants or the same occupant at different times or under different conditions.
Pads have also been proposed for the bottom ledge of the window frame for occupants preferring to drive with the adjacent window open and their arms resting on the window frame. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,478, an inverted L-shaped bracket hooks over the open window ledge and carries a rectangular cushioned pad on its top leg resting on the frame as well as an additional secondary padded support secured in vertically adjustable relation on the depending leg of the bracket and projecting into the passenger compartment below the window frame. Given the current overwhelming popularity of air-conditioned vehicles and the pervasive problem of air pollution, it is rare to drive with open windows so that this idea is of limited benefit. Moreover, for vehicles equipped with standard arm rests, as is almost universally the case, the most comfortable position for the secondary interior support of this design has already been preempted.
More recently, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,921, an elongated portable pad adapted to rest on an open window ledge is attached along one long side to an edge of a flexible flap that is anchored along its opposite edge, e.g. by means of VELCRO cooperating hook-and-loop fastening means, to the top margins of the door panel. When the window is closed, the pad and flap hang downwardly against the inner side panel of the vehicle while for use on the open window, the pad is swung upwardly by doubling the flap upon itself into operative position resting on the window ledge. In its inoperative position, the pad serves no cushioning function and does not cooperate with the standard arm rest of the vehicle.